The times they are a changin’. As search engine algorithms become more sophisticated, content marketing has become about much more than long-tail keywords. Now, every digital marketer must ask the question, “is it time to update our content strategy?”

The Rules of the Game have Changed

Today, the game is far different. Search queries have become more conversational.

For example, it’s more likely a web searcher will type “where are the best burgers near me?” than just “best burgers.”

As a result, keywords are considered to be a contributing factor rather than the central focus of a strategy.

Content Marketing Evolves

Search engines, like Google and Bing, now have the ability to rank content based on more relevant factors, such as quality and readability. As a result, the inbound marketing platform HubSpot recently removed the keyword feature from its blogging platform.

Today, a keyword-focused content strategy could be more of a liability than an asset.

Instead, brands are creating content for a target audience of humans rather than for search engine spiders.

How to Improve your Content Strategy

All these developments do not mean the end of content marketing. In fact, it’s more of a beginning.

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Enter Pillar Pages and Topic Clusters

Pillar pages and topic clusters are now all the rage. Essentially, this content strategy advocates for the development of a network of hyperlinked informational pages, which have branches of supporting topics.

A pillar page is the foundation of this new content strategy. It covers all aspects of a central topic in a single web page.

It is then supported by pages in a topic cluster, which add context to the pillar. The pillar page is meant to be longer and more in-depth than the supporting pages of the topic cluster.

For example, a hospital might build a pillar page about primary care and then support the page with a topic cluster about different primary care services.

How to know it’s Working

Another reason this strategy is currently en vogue is because it makes it easier to measure digital marketing results.

You can quickly learn vital information about not just pages but whole topics you have created content about, including:

Traffic

Leads

Revenue

Page views

Backlinks

Then, this insight can be used as the basis of even better and bigger content marketing campaigns.

Across the industry, marketing agencies are adopting pillar pages and topic clusters to stay ahead of the curve. Is it time you finally updated your content strategy?